Dear MEL Topic Readers,
A looming plague
You might know about the unprecedented number
of locusts have been flying, migrating and eating crops in many places around
the Indian Ocean, from Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, and India. Having
been helped by warmer and rainier weather conditions, locusts have multiplied
their numbers more easily than any year in recent decades.
Female locusts can lay more than 150 eggs at
a time. Just in two weeks, they hatch into hoppers. It takes just a month for
these young hoppers to start flying and laying eggs, and the cycle goes on and
on. Once they start flying in swarms, it is too late to stop them efficiently from
spreading and migrating. That is what happened this year where spraying pesticides was logistically
difficult due to the coronavirus pandemic. They were left uncontrolled and went
airborne in June to India and Pakistan and eating crops for humans and laying
their eggs.
See these images to learn how devastating
locusts are to crops, farmers, and eventually humans in the affected regions.
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